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Experience transitioning to solids from purees?

Inspired by rollo's eating habits thread...

Antoine is 10.5 months old and eats well; he's never refused a a food and obediently finishes his portions with no distractions. Lucky there. He's been on purees of increasing percentages for the last 5-6 months.

Developmentally he should be transitioning from purees to soft solids-- foods that need to be mashed or chewed a little bit before swallowing. I have been patiently attempting to introduce these for the last month to 6 weeks. However, literally every time he takes something with more texture, he has difficulty. Either he chokes-- I've had to finger-sweep him multiple times, and Heimlich him twice; or, more frequently, he gags himself and brings up everything he's just eaten. That happened spectacularly at brunch this morning.

Anyway, my question is the age-old one: is this normal? Do children have difficulty making this transition, are there lots of accidents and near-misses, or should I be worried that he has some kind of swallowing disorder?

In case you're curious, the foods in question are pastas, long-cooked and chopped fine; mashed/strained vegetables; and egg yolks, cooked long and cut fine.

I think the reaction you describe is not unusual. My first did that for a few weeks, but none of my others did. I have wondered if it was partially because I waited longer and was so much more cautious with my first baby so he got too used to purees and didn't want to "work" at eating as readily as my subsequent babies. Two things that helped me: (1) offering a little tiny bit of the new mashed foods mixed into a larger amount of the puree; he'll probably spit out some of the bits at first but will be more inclined to swallow it along with what he's accustomed to swallowing than if the new food is alone. Then you can gradually change the proportion you mix together to phase out the puree. (2) giving him more finger foods to pick up and feed himself. Rice rusks, puffed baby cereal, etc. dissolve when gummed, and you can also give him his mashed food and a spoon and let him try it out. His whole life he has learned that he can gulp down anything you present to him with a spoon, so it is confusing for that suddenly to be different, but he may surprise you by adjusting faster when he tries feeding himself because it is a totally new, unconditioned experience that he will approach as exploratory.

I got one of those strainers that I could only describe as mesh that you put something like a boiled carrot into and allow them to chew at until it becomes a mush.

I think this helped my daughter "get it" with prolonged chewing as opposed to just moving food from the front to the back of her mouth.

I was slow to start foods, but switched from purees to semi solids pretty quickly & easily this way.

A bit off topic but my SIL does baby led weaning & insists that it's somehow unlikely to impossible for a baby to choke...she is constantly trying to bully me into introducing long chunks of meat to my one year old & makes me feel crazy for not wanting to do this! So I'm sorry this is happening to your son but it makes me feel confident that getting to solids is indeed a process & I'm not crazy for taking it slowly.